Reviews
Artist:Leski
Album:Leski
Label:Wragg Music
Tracks:13
Website:http://www.myspace.com/leskikernow
Whilst Devon has had a lot of the publicity with music from the West Country, what with the likes of the various members of the Lakeman Clan and Show Of Hands, Cornwall is definitely starting to kick back
Kernow, as the locals prefer to call it, is definitely fighting back with it's own vibrant music scene. One of the new bands at the forefront of that is Leski.
Featuring rising fiddle player, Richard Trethewey and Kerensa on the much neglected hammered dulcimer, Leski are predominently and instrumental duo, only rarely giving their voices a workoput alongside the tunes.
In someways it's a shame, they've both got strong and distinct voices, but I guess when the tunes and the emotion of the musio and the playing is this good, there's a very good arguement for saying it doesn't need words.
I've know Richard since I bumped into him at Cambridge one year. At the time he was with another Cornish band, Red Army. It's been interesting watching his music change and progress and it seems to have been a good day when he performed with Kerensa for what was suppposed to have been a one off gig and from there Leski was born. The rest is in the process of becoming history.
Kerensa, seems determined to be an artist known by only her first name, it's a strategy that seems to be working. I mention it only because, intentional or not, it's something that shows a sense of drive and wanting to understand one's place in the world, it's something that's matched in their music.
Their self titled debut shows the passion and performance of a band that knows what it's capable of and isn't going to settle for second best. The title track really comes alive to the sound of dancers and the whoops of artists enjoying themselves and capturing that within the recording.
The album captures a number of moods, some of the tracks have a lightness about them, a distinct sense of fun. This highlights and contrasts against a more sorrowful, almost mournful mood that also moves through the album. Both fiddle and dulcimer are instruments of carrying balck, white and all shades in between, particularly when played by two musicians that rapidly seem to have forged an understanding it takes other musicians years to find.
Leski also make good use of guest musicians, including the incorrigible Steve Hunt. It allows them to build the songs/tunes out, but not without losing the scope to play them as a duo.
The songs seem steeped in tradition, even when they've been penned in recent times from within and without the band.
Having played the album a number of times now, it seems to be an album that makes it's self at home. You can imagine the band leading a session in a bar, you can feel them in a folk club, you know it'll feel right on a festival stage. It's also got a timeless quality to it. This would have been at home a hundred years ago, it will still be at home a hundred years from now.
Leski have found their feet very quickly, Richard and Kerensa have delivered an album to be proud of and hopefully one that a lot of people will listen to.